Month: August 2019

Update on 2269 Ebers Street

By Geoff Page

The project that has sat idle on the corner of Greene St. and Ebers St., basically only a framed two-story addition to an existing old home, has restarted construction as recounted in the OB Rag Thursday, Aug. 15.

In order to understand what is happening with the property, the new permitted plans for it were reviewed on Friday, August 16 at the City of San Diego Records Department.

Here is an overall description of the new project:

by Bob Edwards

On Saturday, August 17, the Ocean Beach Historical Society presented a live sunset concert featuring the San Diego City Guard Band at the Greek Amphitheater at Point Loma Nazarene University.

Over 200 people attended the evening concert and enjoyed 90 minutes of historic and patriotic music performed by the 32 piece ensemble.

Will Dems Even Be Allowed Have a Debate on the Crisis in the Midst of the Sixth Extinction?

By Jim Miller

It’s no surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention that the Trump administration’s environmental policy is an out-of-control death train roaring down the tracks toward ecocide. The latest bit of insanity hit last week when the administration announced that it was significantly weakening the Endangered Species Act in the wake of the UN report last May warning that up to one million plant and animal species were at risk of extinction.

As the New York Times Editorial Board wrote of this decision:

Now comes what amounts to a thumb in the eye from the Trump administration: The Interior Department announced a set of rules on Monday that, far from enlarging protections, will weaken how the nation’s most important conservation law,

In a twin news development, it’s being announced that scientists have found plastic in both our rain and snow.

The U.S. Interior Department recently released a study concluding that microscopic plastic fibers have contaminated the air, soil, water, and even rainfall, while other scientists say they’ve found an abundance of tiny plastic particles in Arctic snow, indicating that so-called microplastics are being sucked into the atmosphere and carried to some of the most remote corners of the planet.

Rainwater Samples

Andrew Emmet at Nation of Change reports:

After analyzing rainwater samples collected from the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, the U.S. Interior Department recently released a study concluding that microscopic plastic fibers have contaminated the air, soil, water, and even rainfall. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, plastic was found in over 90 percent of samples taken.

Editordude: The following is an “Open letter to Mayor Mike: No Bird electric scooters, please!” written by the father, apparently, of an Ocean Beach volunteer planner and (former?) member of the OB Planning Board. It’s an open letter to Michael Purzycki, the mayor of Wilmington, Delaware and was printed in the Delaware Business Times:

An open letter to Wilmington Mayor Michael Purzycki:

This may come as a bit of a shock, but I’d like to ask for some aggressive business regulation in one particular area.

Specifically, I hope you and your colleagues on the Wilmington City Council will resist Bird, the Santa Monica, California-based electric scooter-sharing company.

By Thomas Ultican / Tultican / August 10, 2019

The New Teachers Project (TNTP) is one of several organizations that only exist because billionaires have financed them. Wendy Kopp founded TNTP in 1997. She assigned Michelle Rhee, who had recently finished a two year Teach For America (TFA) tour, to run TNTP. Along with TNTP and TFA there are also the uncertified Broad Superintendents Academy and the fake school for professional educators called Relay Graduate School forming a significant part of the infrastructure instilling a privatization mindset into the education community.

TNTP says it mission is to partner with educational entities to:

• “Increase the numbers of outstanding individuals who become public school teachers; and
• Create environments for all educators that maximize their impact on student achievement”

San Diego County continues its Water Quality Advisory for OB’s Dog Beach for the fourth day. The advisory – due to high bacterial levels – extends from the San Diego River outlet to 300 yards south.

Ocean goers are urged to avoid water contact in the advisory area as bacteria levels may exceed health standards. And that goes for dogs and pets, too.

The advisory for Dog Beach has been in effect since Tuesday, August 13, 2019.

Here is what the County’s Beach & Bay Water Quality Program website states:

Originally published Dec. 20, 2017

Scripps News

A California Sea Grant-funded study provides the largest analysis of cliff erosion throughout the state and provides a new hazard index for determining which areas are at most risk

Danger – Unstable Cliffs – Stay Back

The yellow warning signs that pepper coastal cliffs from northern California to the US-Mexico border may seem overly dramatic to the casual observer. But actively eroding cliffs make up the majority of the California coastline, and sudden landslides and collapses have caused injuries and several fatalities in recent years. In addition, eroding cliffs currently threaten highways, houses, businesses, military bases, parks, power plants, and other critical facilities—all in all billions of dollars of development.

Research suggests that erosion rates will increase as sea level rises, further exacerbating these problems.

By Ry Rivard / Voice of San Diego / August 5, 2019

In the decades since [Swami’s] temple slid off the cliff (in Encinitas), more houses have been built along the coast, altering the landscape and, perhaps, endangering those who live there and below.

Of course, erosion has happened long before humans started building houses along the ocean. It’s caused primarily by wind and water. Some water is natural — waves and runoff, for instance. Other water is unnatural, like leaking water systems that weaken the ground, or the rising seas caused by human-made climate change. On Friday [August 9], the catastrophic consequences of cliff collapses again became clear when a bluff near Encinitas collapsed and killed three people.

It started Wednesday, the 14th of August – the remodel of the infamous Ebers-Greene project at 2269 Ebers Street. Workers were noticed on the site and up on the top floor removing wood. The boarded-up, 3-story monstrosity has stood on that corner for a long time, an albatross around the neck of the northeast neighborhood of Ocean Beach.

And there’s a long story behind it for the uninitiated or newly-curious – which we get into below, but it’s just one more chapter of a long saga for neighbors, local planning board members and our readers.

Suffice to say, presumably the same owner who purchased the site now has made a scope change to the permit and is moving ahead with the remodel. There is, we’re told, a combination permit issued in mid-June for an existing 2-story single family residence, which will include a complete remodel to the first and second floors along with a new roof deck. (Project 634951 – Ebers St Remodel; Geo 52, RM-1-1 N-APP-2, Designated Historic. CE# 239245)

By Colleen O’Connor / Times of San Diego / August 9, 2019

The reasons why a woman will be on the Democratic ticket are in the news every day.

That news is not just ugly, violent and unbelievably cruel, but repulsive in the extreme. And it affects women in visceral and now political ways.

While this may sound alarming, the list below points to some reasons why even Orange County—that Republican bastion—is now majority Democratic.

The answer is women.

New Activity at the Ebers-Greene Monstrosity

Wednesday morning, August 14, workers were seen upstairs at the ol’ Ebers-Greene monstrosity. They told neighbors they will tear down the entire structure and even work on the closed-up house next door – full of asbestos. This is of course the infamous 3-story monster built without the proper permits and has been an eye-sore even since the City forced the owner to close down. It’s a long story and to gain insight into the whole mess, read this.

Bill Walton Joins Electric Waste Band

The towering Bill Walton, who was born and raised in La Mesa and still resides in San Diego, is a frequent guest percussionist in the Electric Waste Band (comprised of drummer Danny Campbell, keyboardist Dave Chesavage, guitarist Mark Fisher, drummer Ed Fletcher, guitarist Robert Harvey and bassist Bob Rosencrans) and often spotted at their weekly Ocean Beach Monday night residency shows — which they’ve been playing for nearly three decades. 7SanDiego

Fire Damages Nimitiz Pointe Apts at End of Seaside

An Ocean Beach apartment complex was damaged by fire late afternoon on Aug. 12. Passersby observed smoke coming from the Nimitz Pointe Apartments at 2401 Seaside St. and notified San Diego Fire-Rescue. Responding fire units were dispatched at 6:07 p.m. As the first fire engine approached the site, firefighters reported to other units they could observe smoke and flames coming from the units. While those first firefighters prepared to fight the fire, other arriving Fire-Rescue units were directed to begin a precautionary evacuation of the apartments.